Operto Guest Technologies Inc.

2021: Joining DACK Inc.

DACK is a travel technology company obsessed with giving guests memorable hospitality. We sell our software suite to boutique hotels and rental property managers. The guest application serves as a digital key, guideboook, and marketplace.

I joined this startup to learn and grow quickly. While I endured some stressful moments, I ultimately learned a boat load and grew as an engineer, manager, and product designer. And that's the beauty of a startup, you get to expand past your day job, because there are plenty of problems to solve. I was relentless about making forward progress, and after leading two major product launches, I grew from Lead iOS Developer to Head of Product (2023).

I led mobile development at DACK, releasing over 100 versions of our guest application. In addition to our main application, we also released private label applications for premium customers.

2024: Operto Guest Technologies Inc. acquires DACK Inc.

Selling DACK was rewarding, because the purchase validated what I spent so much time building. Still, the process was harder than expected, since I didn't feel ready to hand over the keys. When would I ever be? Even though I was ready to keep pushing DACK on our own, it was the right move to sell the company.

At Operto, our product had a brighter future with a larger team and great funding. Even just joining a company 10x our size would be insightful, since later stage companies operate differently. And there were many

When I was offered to jump back into a technical role, I transitioned to a Senior Full-Stack Developer. Being a full-stack developer was a new learning opportunity, which after all is the reason I joined a startup. So even though the selling was an emotional process, I remained positive about the change. I felt like I was getting paid to learn!